George’s Bio

Hey guys, since I started this course a little late I don’t think I properly introduced myself. My name is George and I’m a second year at the I School. Before attending Berkeley I worked as a User Experience Designer at a number of agencies in Philadelphia. I continue to work as a designer, and my interest in this field came from my undergraduate experience at UPenn where I did Psychology and Fine Arts. I focused on Photography as an undergraduate in Fine Arts, where my subject matter tended to be abandoned structures and urban blight. I’d both document and create interventions or installations about these spaces.

If you want to learn more about me visit my site: georgethayes.com

Alison

I’m a second-year master’s student at the School of Information. I am interested in user-centered product design, in particular for digital publishing and education technology. For my final project, my team (including Mike) is designing a platform for distance learning instructors to create what we are calling “narratives”–trails of online media content that are easy and interesting for students to consume. We need to both create interesting sample narratives (and templates for others to do the same) and tell a compelling story about our process of researching users and designing our tool.

I take a lot of snapshots but have little experience with real photography. I have a basic understanding of manual settings on my camera and some basic photo/video editing skills and have always intended to learn more.

My email is alisonm [at] ischool [dot] berkeley [dot] edu

Jenni’s intro

Hi all: Aaminah told me about this class just this morning, and I knew I had to take it—even if it meant showing up to the party a bit late! I’m a first-year PhD student in the Graduate School of Education’s Language, Literacy, and Culture program. One of my main research interests is the bridging of print-based and digital literacies in the high school English classroom; I conducted a qualitative study last semester that examined students’ uses of Adobe Flash to visually represent their interpretations of 14th century Anglo Saxon poetry.  I also just started working as a GSR for Glynda Hull’s Kidnet project (www.space2cre8.com), and taking this course sounds like a terrific way to explore the role of visual documentation in my current and future ethnographic work.

This class also appeals to the enthusiastic amateur photographer in me. I am an avid traveler and enjoy sharing my adventures with family and friends through my blog and Facebook albums. Documenting the ordinary and extraordinary on camera (using SLR, DSLR, smartphone, computer, etc.) is just plain fun to me, and I look forward to becoming better at it. I’ve taken some darkroom and digital photography classes, but I have much to learn and am looking forward to becoming more skilled at capturing moments/narratives through photography and video. I have some experience with Adobe Lightroom and iMovie, but, again, I have a lot of room for improvement and am eager to learn more about presentation software and techniques.

I check my email often: jhiggs@berkeley.edu

Araba

Sorry for the late introduction–there were some technical problems in getting my account set up.  I’m Araba,  a first year PhD student in anthropology.  I am interested in media, advertising, and the cultural politics of representation in Nigeria.  I’m interested in interpreting visual media as well as exploring some of the theoretical concepts in visual anthropology.  That said, I’m looking forward to trying to create my own visual narratives and learning more about photography.  I’m also interested in how photography and video can be incorporated in ethnography.

I have always had a camera with me when I’ve traveled abroad, but I have done little experimentation with my camera.  My experience with video editing consists of a film course I took in high school where we had to make our own movies.

Vivek

Hi there, I’m a first year MS/PhD student in Mechanical Engineering. I worked for a few years as a designer & strategist at innovation firm IDEO, where I developed the skills and a taste for ethnography as practiced in design research. Accordingly, I have the requisite (meaning, minimum) technical competencies in photography, video editing, sound editing, etc in addition to the abstract framing and synthesis that goes into worthwhile research.

I’ve also spent time in various writing workshops for short story craft, so I’m looking for ways to bring that mode of thinking to bear on multimedia narrative.

No projects in mind, yet.

Looking forward!

Kevin Huynh

Hello hello.

I’m Kevin Huynh, 1st year Mechanical Engineering grad student.  My interests are wide and my background is ironic.  In short, I like to make ideas happen and I’m obsessed with creativity and inspiration.

I’m interested in working in design strategy/innovation consulting, and rich media and story telling has always come up as an integral part of that.  I started a social art sideproject called the Common Camera Project that’s distributing hundreds of disposable cameras in a take-a-pic-and-pass-it-on campaign in search of inspiration.

I’m interested in learning more about photography (and learn how to take better pics) as well as better frame my thinking about how images can be employed to tell better stories.  I don’t have a huge background with photography apart from being an appreciator and an owner of a point and shoot.  I’ve worked a lot with photoshop (but primarily for graphic design purposes) and have dabbled in video editing with Adobe Premiere on a few occasions.  Enough to survive.

Pleasure to meet ya.

Bryan Trinh

I’m Bryan Trinh, a first year Masters student from the Mechanical Engineering department. Although we have no official concentration tracts, I focus my studies on the designing of products: both the tangible, and digital.

I am interested in designing products that connect–ones that transcend the superficial specifications of usage. I am a believer that the secret to making a connection is storytelling. A big part of storytelling is crafting the environment and emotional context that the creation exists or atlas designing with these in mind.

I have experience working with DSLR’s and the newer generation of video capable interchangeable lens cameras. In the past I have also worked with miniDV’s.

In terms of software, I have used adobe premiere in the past but admit that I will have to brush up on those skills. I have also recently tried Sony Vegas Pro. I recently acquired a license of Adobe Production Premium and will be using that this semester.

I am taking this class to simply improve my abilities. I don’t have any particular project in mind as of yet.

My email is [ bryan trinh 88  at gmail dot com ] (parse as expected)

Dan C

I’m Daniel Chiang, second year I School Master’s student. My focus at the I School is user interface design and user experience research. I took up photography to help take pictures for my church and other campus student groups. I think I’ve read alot about different photographic techniques but haven’t gotten around to practice most of them. I bought a Canon T2i partly for its HD video capabilities (and ‘cuz I couldn’t afford a 7D) and use it here and there for personal stuff.

I also have some experience with video production (Avid DV, Final Cut), storyboarding, and scriptwriting, so I thought this class would be a great chance to acquire more formal training on both storytelling through media and the technical aspects of production. Like others, I’m also interested in this class for my final project and presentation.

My email is dchiang@ischool.berkeley.edu.

Sean

Hey Everyone, I am Sean Carey, I am a second year master’s student in the School of Information at Berkeley. After coming to the Information School, I have become most interested in prototyping, designing and user experience research. I have prior interest in photography from sports and landscape photography.

I’d say I am a moderately advanced photographer, borderline expert. I do not have any darkroom photography experience, just digital. I would like to apply whatever skills I learn here for use in my final project, but also to expand my knowledge and skills at photography.

Usually the best way to contact me is via email. I addictively check it: s_carey@ischool.berkeley.edu

Michael

I’m Michael, second year master’s student at the I School. I’m focusing on the design and implementation of data visualizations for large data sets. That also means that I can finally put my background in computer science and my dark past working on large-scale databases for Swiss banks into good use.

I used to be passionate about analog b/w photography and spent quite some free time in dark rooms developing my pictures. i don’t maintain my Flickr account, but some random selection of my pictures can still be seen there. What sparked my interest in photography was an Henri Cartier Bresson exhibition in Tel Aviv back in the day. His life work is currently also shown at SF MOMA, and it’s definitely worth a visit.

My final project team designs an educational platform for distance learners, which presents students with multi-modal narratives. I hope that what we do in the course of this semester informs the design of our system. Apart from that, I’m looking forward to explore media editing tools a little further.

Contact me at mike@ischool.berkeley.edu